Irish Wish follows Maddie, who gets a chance to marry the man of her dreams, only to realize that he is not the right match for her. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Maddie has been in love with Paul Kennedy, the writer whose books she edits—or rather, co-writes without receiving credit for it.
Maddie has been looking forward to confessing her feelings to Paul and to start working on her own book.
However, when Paul, who does not reciprocate her feelings, asks her to edit his next book, she once again sets aside her own work for his.
Furthermore, before she can confess her feelings to him, Paul meets Maddie’s best friend, Emma, and the two of them hit it off immediately.
Before Maddie knows it, Emma and Paul are getting married in Ireland. Maddie now regrets not confessing her feelings when she had the chance.
Maddie arrives in Ireland for Emma and Paul’s wedding and meets a photographer named James, who travels the world.
Initially, due to a misunderstanding, Maddie and James do not get along. James is not a fan of Paul’s work, and that makes matters worse.
After Emma and her friends’ arrival, Paul and his brother take them to the places Paul had written about, and Maddie keeps pining for Paul.
She sits down on a stone bench, unaware that it is a wishing chair, and wishes that she was the one marrying Paul instead of Emma.
A woman, who is later revealed to be Saint Brigid, appears out of thin air and asks Maddie to make her wish again.
The next moment, Maddie finds herself waking up in Paul’s room. Her wish has come true: her reality has been altered, and now she is the one marrying Paul.
While Maddie is thrilled to finally achieve what she has long desired, she cannot help but notice that Emma connects better with Paul and his family than she does.
With some meddling from Saint Brigid, Maddie once again meets James, who does not remember meeting her before due to their reality getting altered.
Paul’s mother ends up hiring James to photograph Maddie and Paul’s wedding. Paul also wants to take some PR pictures with Maddie.
However, due to an accident, Paul does not join Maddie and James, who end up discovering the area together to find some good backdrops for the PR photographs.
James takes Maddie to his favorite spots, which Maddie loves but knows that Paul would not.
James also realizes that Maddie has not started working on her own book because she is been busy editing Paul’s book.
He encourages Maddie to write her own story and to speak up when he notices that the wedding is not planned the way Maddie wants it to be.
James confides in her that he does not settle down and call any place his home because he values the freedom of not having ties.
However, Maddie deduces that it must be lonely for him, thinking he has not yet found the person he would like to spend his life with.
As they spend more time together, Maddie realizes she and James have things in common, and they get along quite well.
On the other hand, it does not take James long to notice that Paul and Maddie do not have much in common; Maddie is marrying a man who is her opposite.
In just one day, James comes to know Maddie better than Paul. They laugh and dance together, and a storm forces them to spend the night at a pub.
Ending explained:
Maddie’s conflicting feelings
During Maddie and Paul’s rehearsal dinner, the couple play a game to test how well they know each other, and Paul gives all the wrong answers.
As Maddie’s reality was altered, she doesn’t know anything about their relationship, but during the dinner, she discovers that she proposed to Paul, not the other way around.
Later, James questions Maddie if marrying Paul is everything she imagined. He expresses his concern, hoping she’s not making a mistake.
He adds that if she were his girlfriend, he would not have waited for her to propose; he would have done it first.
As Maddie is not ready to accept the truth about her and Paul’s relationship, she does not take James’ questioning of her choices well.
His remark about not waiting if she were his girlfriend makes matters worse because she has started liking him.
James then informs her that he is leaving for Bolivia after the wedding, and the idea of James leaving hurts Maddie.
She ends up making a comment about James running from his life and instantly regrets it, but it is too late to take back her words.
Facing the truth
Due to Saint Brigid’s intervention, Maddie’s mother fails to make it to Ireland for Maddie’s wedding, leaving Maddie unhappy.
That night, Maddie reflects on how she has not written her book because she has been prioritizing Paul’s work.
Despite her significant contribution to Paul’s book, he does not acknowledge her as a writer and even writes her wedding vows.
Maddie then witnesses an interaction between Paul and Emma and realizes that they love each other in this reality as well.
The next morning, Maddie apologizes to James, who tells her that he read Paul’s new book. Unlike Paul, he acknowledges her contribution and thinks that the book is much better than any of his previous books because of her work
He asks her not to change her life for Paul and points out how marrying him is making her sad, a fact that Maddie can no longer ignore.
Before the wedding, Maddie confesses to the priest about her wish to Saint Brigid. The priest assures her that Saint Brigid always grants people what they truly need.
Maddie realizes that she ruined her friend’s chance at happiness and apologizes to Emma, who confesses that she has always felt destined to be with Paul.
Maddie decides not to marry Paul. For the first time, she speaks up for herself and acknowledges that she and Paul do not love each other.
A wish to revoke her wish
Paul blames James for Maddie’s decision and gets into a fight with him. James also feels responsible for Maddie calling off the wedding.
As James does not want to be a source of conflict, he wishes Maddie happiness and walks away, but not before confessing his feelings for her.
Maddie now believes that she cannot be happy without James and returns to the place where she made her wish. This time, she wishes to revoke her wish.
Instantly, everything returns to how it was before she made the wish. Emma and Paul get married, and Maddie genuinely feels happy for them.
When Paul asks Maddie to start writing his next book without offering her co-writing credits, she declines his offer, determined to write her own book.
She seeks out James, who reveals to her that he is not leaving for Bolivia because a woman, Saint Brigid, convinced him to stay in Ireland for some time.
Maddie, who is also going to stay in Ireland to write her book, now has a chance to be with James, the man who is her perfect match.